Letter at Length

Thursday

Feb 28, 2013 at 2:00 AM

Focus on COČ is misplaced

Focus on CO² is misplaced

Gerald Cavanaugh's letter to the Tidings on Feb. 26 is disappointing. That he finds Kathy Conway's presentation on climate change "convincing" is not surprising. This same tired argument about burning fossil fuels causing climate change continues to perpetuate several sources of confusion, which the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change acolytes avidly embrace.

This cant is a real winner for the politically correct, group-think crowd, who are neither correct nor used to thinking. Such burning of fossil fuels certainly does contribute to heat pollution; whether from automobiles or power plants.

It also contributes CO² to the atmosphere concomitantly, allowing the Al Gore aficionados to dance in the streets to the tune of that misbegotten paradigm, in spite of the fact that CO² composes less than .04 percent of our atmosphere; and all the other very sound dismissals of the so-called "greenhouse effect." Moreover, burning fossil fuels causes much real pollution, in the form of sulfides, sulfates and particulate matter. And there certainly is a political dimension to this issue as well, in that the oil and coal companies (and, incidentally, most auto manufacturers) also contribute to our national foreign ambitions, and de facto war-making. Rock-solid connections there, but none of this has anything to do with CO².

But do you know who does have lot at stake with the CO² issue? The nuclear power industry and its military boosters. Nuclear power plants are the primary source of weapons-grade plutonium (which is the real reason we didn't want Iran to have any). And such plants are simultaneously the greatest heat pollution sources on the planet, but they produce zero CO². And they are proud to tell you that again and again. Gee, do you suppose they support the IPCC?

I'll tell you who else greatly supports the IPCC: anyone working off a grant endorsing the Gore paradigm. It's the most incestuous group since the Tijuana dog romp. And generator of the worst junk science I have seen in my entire life. Inevitably, history will judge it as such. A total disgrace.

Nor does putting the blame for all this stuff at the doors of "capitalism" serve any purpose. If you want root causes, it is greed you seek. The same thing that polluted the Politburo of the old Soviet Union. "Isms" aren't a useful rapier for such problems. It's human nature that must constantly be monitored. Socialism itself, in some of its variants, promotes some of the most conformist thinking and lack of responsibility that exists. Cavanaugh speaks with urgency about appropriate action, and professes his responsibility. Well, the No. 1 responsibility anyone must have is to truth. And truth is often not so simple. But if we don't understand things, we can waste enormous resources — time, energy and money — pursuing chimeras, and actually abetting that which should be despised, and just making everyone even more stupid.